Movie Magazine Analysis-Total Film

The colour of the magazine's masthead is red for two reasons. The first and more obvious reason is that it makes the text easy to see over the light background and the second is that the colour red represents the blood and fieryness of the featured article on Megan Fox. Placed around the masthead are the magazine price, issue and online website details, this is because these are all important pieces of information that the audience will want to know quickly without looking all over the magazine so by putting them by the masthead which is the first thing the audience will see the creators make it easy for them to find that information quickly. This contrasts the position of the barcode which is placed in the bottom corner of the cover because it is not important to the audience.

Although there is no headline on this front cover regarding the main feature, to entice readers to buy the product the creators have included a quote from inside the article relating to its main subject. By finding out the main subject of the article without having to read it, the audience can decide if they are interested in buying the product immediately. As well as the quote, it is accompanied underneath by a brief insight into other subjects from within the article which could draw the attention of people not interested in the main subject.

The creators use hooks and straplines across the front cover to entice the audience to purchase the product. There are constant mentions of other features of the magazine including other releases, previews and reviews, by indicating these other articles the magazine hooks the audience into buying the product for something they are interested by inside. As well as text hooks, the front cover also includes images of movies from inside to entice the audience. Accompanied by a strapline, the images at the top of the cover allow the audience to spot a movie or character they like and entice them into the magazine. Another way the front over hooks in readers is the use of movie stars and their fame. By including this image of Megan Fox the magazine encourages readers interested in her to purhcase the product and also the features of the image relate to the conecpt of the article, horror and blood.

Like most magazine front covers, the importance of the text or image dictates it's positon, eg. more important middle, less important bottom. But a contrasting convention to many magazines that is undertaken by this cover is the use of bigger, bolder text towards the bottom of the page to allow easier viewing for the audience compared to further up. Commonly, the size of the magazine is A4. Although some is lower case, the majorirty of the more important information on the page is in bold font and in capitals.

The colours of the cover are made is easy to see and read over the light background, but more importantly, the text colour of the masthead and the mentioning of the main article represent the key concept of it, in this case red for blood and horror.